1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer apparatus.
2. Discussion of the background
The above-mentioned printer apparatus (inkjet printer) is structured so that, while a carriage on which a printer head is mounted is relatively moved, for example, in a right and left or lateral direction with respect to a printing medium in a reciprocated manner, ink is ejected from an ejection nozzle formed on an under face of the printer head to perform a predetermined printing on a surface of the printing medium. Printer heads for respective colors of, for example, magenta (M), yellow (Y), cyan (C) and black (K) (hereinafter, these four colors are referred to as “basic color”) are mounted on the carriage, inks ejected from the printer heads adhere to the surface of the printing medium with predetermined densities to express various colors.
In recent years, a printer apparatus has been developed in which a cutting device for performing a cutting work on a printing medium in a desired shape is mounted on the printer apparatus so that printing and a cutting work can be performed by one printer apparatus. For example, in FIG. 1 in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-297248, a structure is disclosed that the carriage 22 on which the ink-jet heads 26 are mounted and the carriage 24 on which the cutting head 28 is mounted are provided so as to be movable along the guide rail 18 and a desired printing and a desired cutting work are performed on a sheet 100 which is placed on the base member 12.
A part of a printer apparatus 500 is shown in FIG. 13 as an example of a conventional printer apparatus which is structured to be capable of performing printing and a cutting work as described above. The printer apparatus 500 is structured so that a printing device 520 on which a plurality of printer heads 521 is mounted and a cutting device 530 on which a cutter blade 531 is mounted are attached to a guide rail 510, which is provided so as to face a platen 540 on which a printing medium (not shown) is placed and supported, so as to be movable in the right and left direction in the drawing.
When printing is to be performed on a printing medium, the printing device 520 is moved on an upper side of the platen 540 by a drive mechanism not shown and, on the other hand, when a cutting work is to be performed, the cutting device 530 is moved on the upper side of the platen 540. Further, in respective standby states of the printing device 520 and the cutting device 530 which are not operated, they are separately located at right and left positions of the platen 540 as shown in FIG. 13.
Recently, in the printer apparatus in which printing and a cutting work are capable of performing as described above, the printing device 520 and the cutting device 530 have been required to be in a standby state at only one of a right side position or a left side position of the platen 540 from a standpoint of workability in maintenance or the like. In order to attain this requirement, in FIG. 13, for example, in a case that the cutting device 530 is located on the side of the printing device 520 and two devices are held in standby states on the right side end part of the guide rail 510 in the drawing, when the printing device 520 is to be moved to the upper side of the platen 540 for printing, the operation is obstructed by the cutting device 530.